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Critical appreciation of the novel lord of flies
Critical appreciation of lord of the flies
Lord of the flies and humanity
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In The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, the author believed that humans were born naturally evil. Hitler, Stalin, and Osama Bin Laden were evil because they were born with the basic tendency of immoral human nature. Golding believed this because of his experience in WWII, watching the boundaries of society crumble as he witnessed sanctified murder in war. Furthermore, in 1954, when Golding wrote The Lord Of The Flies, America had just released the atomic bomb upon the unsuspecting city of Hiroshima, instantly killing 80,000 people. Golding, along with many civilians of America could not fathom the evil that had been committed. This event led Golding to write the classic novel, The Lord Of The Flies. Although there is evidence that William …show more content…
Why is it that Golding had these three boys be good when he felt as though every human being was naturally evil? Jack used their fear for the beast to control them. He did this by not believing that the beast was real. It was because Jack had no fear for the beast that Roger and the others felt safe around him.The reasoning behind the beast having so much control over them is because the safety and security that they needed was one of the top priorities on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. It was because of their fear for the beast that they turned towards the dark. “What I mean is...maybe it’s only us.” (89). Simone and later on Ralph and Piggy knew that the only beast on the island was themselves, resulting in them not believing that there was a physical monster that could harm them. It was because of Simone’s logic that led the three boys towards the light, away from Jack’s iron fist of fear. Being evil or thinking that and act is evil completely depends on the person’s perspective. For example, one country’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Though Osama Bin Laden was a sick and evil man to the USA he was a saviour and hero to Al Qaeda. Just like Jack’s cruelty and abusiveness to Ralph, Simon, and Piggy made Jack seem evil to them, he was like of God to Roger and the rest of his followers. So in reality, was Jack evil or good? What was acceptable to the society that the boys
When Ralph sees the naval officer that appears on the island to save them, he realizes that he will return to civilization. The shock causes him to reflect on what has happened. The rescue does not produce joy; instead he feels despair at what he has been through. He is awakened to the reality that he will never be the same. He has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that lurks within himself and all men through his experiences on the island. Ralph’s revelation to his loss of innocence and societal order among the boys is exemplified through the collapse of the attempted Democratic government, the killing of the pig, and the death of Piggy and Simon.
Whether people will deny it or not, it is certainly apparent that human nature is all too evil; for there is a demon that lurks in everyone, just waiting to come out. Humans can build civilizations and attempt to deviate themselves from such basic instincts, yet nevertheless, evil is not something that they can run from; it is not something that they can defeat. William Golding knew this, and so in his book, Lord of the Flies, he presents so by portraying a microcosm of a society in the form of little British schoolboys. Their plane, in an attempt to escape from the raging war, came to its own demise as it was shot down, leaving the boys stranded on an island they know nothing of. Ralph, later on the leader of the boys, and with the help of
The issue on whether man is good or evil has been debated over several generations. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are stranded on an uninhabited island. In the beginning, the boys have fun and are carefree while adventuring on the island. With no adults around to tell them how to behave, the boys declare war on one another and face several conflicts. These conflicts provide Golding with the opportunity to explore the idea that society restrains the evil intentions of human nature.
How Evil is Portrayed in Lord of the Flies by George Orwell William Golding uses allegory in Lord of the Flies to portray the evil that is in people. An allegory is a story with an underlying meaning as well as a literal one. William Golding uses allegory on two levels in Lord of the Flies, one relating to World War Two that had just taken place when the book was written and another relating to Jesus Christ and the Garden of Eden. An important aspect of the novel is the time in which it was written, due to the Second World War ending. This means that Golding would have experienced and seen the cruelty and bitterness of man.
At many points throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding writes for the characters to become gradually more and more evil. This attribute even reaches the symbols of goodness and order, such as Ralph. Once, when Ralph and Piggy go to the feast on Jack's beach, they begin to meld with the others and their evil ways. "Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society" (Golding 138). This really only proves their common longing for a place with others, not any depth of evilness.
William Golding, the author of the highly-acclaimed book, The Lord of the Flies took the reader into a world where underage boys live in an uncharted island with no adults no other human contact; just themselves and finding ways to survive and to get off the island. However, that is no easy task, Golding shed some ground-breaking light on how really boys will act with no authority in their lives and the term “boys will be boys” will arise. The boys were placed in a situation where they were force to act a certain way of nature and condition. In consequence, the boys’ savage and immoral behavior shown is to be blamed on the situation/environment nurtured factors.
In the film Lord of The Flies, after a plane crash the survivors found themselves living on a deserted island which brought out certain societal norms with deviant behaviors formed in the different groups of the adolescents. Deviance is something different from what is considered to be normal or morally correct. The societal norms of the island were maintaining the same appearance and also having an aggressive attitude. Furthermore, there was more of a focus on long term survival as opposed to getting rescued. The societal norms started when, the hunters came back from a successful hunt bringing a dead pig to dinner. Once they arrived, they smacked Piggy in the head and broke a lens on his glasses. The reasoning behind this was, he was considered deviant from their group because he was not like them. He was not like them because of his physical appearance.
Mankind is innately evil. The allegorical novel, The Lord of the Flies, allows for little interpretation about human nature. William Golding depicts the idea, “evil is an inborn trait of man” (Golding). Throughout the novel the children who have crash landed on the island begin to uncover their savage nature. Although all of the children somehow succumb to a heinous behaviour, Jack, Ralph, and Roger become most noticeably corrupt. Ultimately, it becomes clear that malicious intent is intrinsic in mankind.
Mr. Golding understood this simple fact of innate evil, and showed it in his novel. In ‘Lord of the Flies’, Mr. Golding says, “‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill… you knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?’” (Golding 143). This scene is one of the most powerful in the book. The one speaking is the Lord of the Flies, the personification of pure evil. He then states a frightening fact: he is a part of all humans. This is the clincher of the novel. Evil is stated to be part of humanity, and is living alive and well. Evil is and exists in the core of humanity. This fact was shown quite sadly by Chrisitanity Today. They
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
In the novel, Jack, more so than the other boys, mindlessly takes the first step towards evil. Mindlessly taking the first step is commonly known as “evil starts out small” (Tomasulo). Jack demonstrates one minuscule first step by possessing a knife before the boys crash onto the island. This shows that Jack was violent before the crash. Jack also forced his choir boys to march through the dense tropical heat in their long black cloaks. In this instance, Jack shows that he is unsympathetic towards the feelings of the other boys. Jack
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding used a group of British boys beached on a deserted island to illustrate the malicious nature in mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with the changes the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom from their society. William Golding's basic philosophy that man was inherently evil was expressed in such instances as the death of Simon, the beast within the boys, and the way Ralph was fervently hunted.
During World War II, the United States killed 90,000 to 166,000 people in Hiroshima with an atomic bomb. The bombing of Hiroshima demonstrated the uncivilized behaviors of humankind: hunger for power, misuse of technology, and subconscious reactions to conflicts. Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, illustrates a horrific tale of boys who are stranded on an island and lose their ability to make civil decisions. Throughout the book, Ralph and Jack fight for power, Piggy’s spectacles are constantly taken to create fire, and several of the boys become “savage” and act upon their subconscious minds. From a sociological perspective, Golding’s novel portrays man’s voracity for power, abuse of technology to the point of destruction, and his venture to inner darkness.
William Golding wrote of his novel "Lord of the Flies" that the theme was an attempt to explore how the defects society are based largely on human nature rather than the structure of civilization. Golding used "Lord of the Flies" to allegorically explain that the architecture of a society depends on the morality of the individual rather than a social or political construction, regardless of its inherent merit or esteem.